Armonea Nursing Homes Residents Clinical Trial
Official title:
Cancer in Elderly Nursing Home Residents in Belgium: Prospective Cohort Study Including Translational Research to Develop Better Prognostic Tools to Help With Treatment Decisions in the Elderly
Cancer is a disease of the elderly. Cancer incidence is 11-fold higher in persons over the
age of 65, than in younger ones. Approximately 60% of all cancers and 70% of cancer mortality
occurs in people older than 65 years. Moreover, due to the aging of the population in the
Western world the number of elderly people is expected to increase and therefore the number
of older cancer patients is expected to rise. Despite this rapid increase in cancer incidence
and cancer-related mortality with age, our knowledge about ageing and cancer and about
optimal treatment for older cancer patients is still far from adequate. Therefore, it is
clear that cancer in the elderly is a major and increasing health problem. A key problem in
geriatric oncology research is the important selection bias because very old/frail patients,
are very rarely included in clinical trials.
Changes in the patterns of health care delivery have shifted the care of the elderly from
acute care settings to the community and long-term care facilities. As the European
population ages, more and more people will become nursing home residents, many of whom will
have a suspicion of, or be diagnosed with, and eventually die from, cancer. Although cancer
is very common in elderly nursing home residents, it is poorly studied. This lack of
information may impact on clinical decision making and the appropriateness of treatments
offered and therefore collection of this information is needed.
This project has two main objectives. The first objective is to report on demographics,
referral patterns and motives for non-referral, anti-cancer treatments and outcome of
patients in nursing homes with suspected or diagnosed active invasive cancer where a
diagnostic or treatment decision has to be taken. The second objective is to develop better
prognostic tools (for survival) including biological markers of ageing to help treatment
decisions in the elderly.
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